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When Wilhelm Roentgen took the very first X-ray photograph -- a ghostly image of his wife's hand -- in 1895, the German physicist not only earned himself the very first Nobel Prize in Physics, he also gave the world the gift of creepy skeletal photographs and seeing bizarre things stuck inside living but unlucky people. Here: an 1896 X-ray of Roentgen's wife's hand, similar to the very first X-ray picture. Upon seeing her skeletal hand, she exclaimed, "I have seen my own death!" (Hulton Archive/Getty Images/LIFE.com) Visit LIFE: Your World in Pictures

This 37-year-old New Zealand man had a knife embedded in his brain during a disagreement in central Wellington in 2003, but surgeons were able to safely remove the weapon. (Ross Setford/Getty Images/LIFE.com) Visit LIFE: Your World in Pictures